ghost of xmas present

Question 1

characterisation of the ghost of christmas past

Answer 1

-physical allegory/personification of christmas spirit
-spirit’s purpose is to highlight the importance of christmas spirit to scrooge

-mouthpiece for dickens’ views on social reform
-guides scrooge towards his redemption
-the Spirit is presented as aware of social issues.

Question 2

‘he obeyed’ [stave 3]

Answer 2

-established the power dynamic between the ghost of present and scrooge
-also shows scrooge’s newfound willingness to change

Question 3

‘heaped up on the floor…turkeys, geese, game, poultry’ [stave 3]

Answer 3

-he is a mouthpiece for dickens’ views on society and how he opposed malthusian views, he believed in sharing
-there is obviously a lot of food, that can feed many people

hyperbolic asyndetic listing:
-emphasises the abundance of food

Question 4

‘holly wreath’ [stave 3]

Answer 4

religious imagery: ‘holly wreath’
↳ the ghosts wreath signifies Jesus’ crown of thorns and shows how the ghost is making a similar sacrifice (lives for only one day) to Jesus, in the of redemption of human nature

Question 5

‘antique scabbard; but no sword was in it…eaten up with rust’ [stave 3]

Answer 5

semantic field of age: ‘antique’, ‘rust’
↳ symbolises how the ghost is promoting peace and calm reconciliation, he wants scrooge to amend his ways peacefully
↳ the ghost has been promoting peace for a long time

Question 6

‘I see a vacant seat’
[stave 3]

Answer 6

-the death of tiny tim is a direct consequence of scrooge’s inadequacy, scrooge finally realised that he must change to prevent tiny tim’s death, this is the most effective turning point for scrooge
-when scrooge begins to show empathy and regain his emotions, he is able to go through redemption
-perhaps the fact that a child is what finally changes scrooge hints that dickens wanted people in victorian society to pay more attention to them

Question 7

‘this boy is ignorance. this girl is want…perversion of humanity’
[stave 3]

Answer 7

symbolism:
↳ symbolic of the industrial poor
↳ the fact that they come from a ghost is symbolising how the poor had been forgotten, neglected & ignored by society
↳ ignorance (fog, are there no prisons) & want (covetous old sinner) are both some of scrooge’s most apparent flaws, scrooge represents the wider upper class society, the fact he refused to look at them at first shows how they are ignored
↳ the fact that ‘doom’ will come unless these traits, ignorance in particular, are reversed shows how dickens believes that the ignorance of the poor’s issues and hiding of opulence from them is what damages society most

perversion
↳ refers to a distortion or corruption
↳ suggests that these distorted human figures stem from the unfair and unbalanced society where innocent, poor children society is completely different from what humanity was intended to be
↳ alternatively, humanity refers to empathy and compassion, so dickens could be saying that misanthropic views are ultimately what lead to the corruption of society

education:
↳ dickens believed that education. was crucial in decreasing poverty
↳ dickens was writing about his own experience, as he wished he had the opportunity to go to school as a young boy

Question 8

‘unconstrained’, capacious, outpouring’ vs ‘bare’
[stave 3]

Answer 8

bare
↳ the fact that the ghost has an absence of clothes and is still ‘jolly’ red presents how giving to others can actually be the most fulfilling action, dickens wanted to promote philanthropic views to the upper class reading his books

juxtaposition: ‘unconstrained’, capacious, outpouring’ vs ‘bare’
↳the conflicting ideas of fullness and emptiness show how personal philanthropy is powerful & beyond human understanding, dickens believed that philanthropy was the most effective method of eradicating poverty and forming a harmonious, equal society

Question 9

characterisation of ignorance & want

Answer 9

-symbolic of the issues that plague mankind​
-could be argued that they are portrayed as children because dickens is trying to show that children are the ones that suffer the most from society’s issues
-described as ‘monsters​‘ perhaps because their existence is ​dangerous to society

-purpose of the children may be to show scrooge the effects of poverty within society
-dickens tries to show that through education of both the poor and upper-class some of society’s problems can be solved
-the beings are not just a ​warning​ ​to scrooge but also to all of mankind to change their ways

Question 10

themes expressed through ignorance and want

Answer 10

poverty & social Injustice:
-ignorance and want are manifestations of the disease of poverty
-they represent two key factors which contribute to the issue (ignorance that the upper-class have towards the plight of the poor causes the issue to be overlooked and so develop further | the want and greed that they display prevents them from assisting those who need help)

supernatural:
-the children’s purpose is emphasised through their supernatural features
-by describing them as “hideous” dickens heightens the impact of their characters
-this is emphasised further due to dickens structural choices
-by introducing the children after the happy hristmas celebrations, their appearance is more abrupt and disturbing which adds to the tension that they bring
-though the children may come through a supernatural medium, they are grounded in reality which makes them all the more terrifying